Serendipity
by Yessica-N
Summary: AU, HumanBots. Aperture is a prestigious school for the smartest and richest students. But it bears a terrible secret. When students start disappearing, it's up to Chell and her best friend Wheatley to solve the mystery. Humor/Action/Romance and Mystery
1. Intro

**Serendipity: Intro**

The Aperture Science and Math university was well known for 2 things:  
>First of all, this academy was the best known to mankind.<p>

The students it delivered were state of the art and went on to do great things, whether they deserved it or not.

Everybody who wanted to mean something in the future would went to Aperture, to study one of their two educations.

You could either choose for more math, or more science. There was a lot of attention for languages too, and every student got basic computer skills.  
>Actually, you got everything. Aperture got away with giving it's students more hours than were allowed, but that's what you get when you wanne be the future.<p>

Secondly, the school was also known for being a dumphole for rich teenagers who had no real ambition or even a brain.

It would be an understatement to suggest Aperture was a school you could easily buy your way into.

It would be an even greater understatement to say that 75 % of the students were rich but clueless.

This caused that you could devide the students into 3 groups.

The group of medium size, included the students with less to no brain, but a pocket full of cash and a personal driver waiting outside.  
>The largest group of students were people who had a brain, though never enough to keep up with Aperture standerds. Again, most of these students had 2 houses and a mercedes.<p>

Last, you had a very small group of people who actually deserved their place in the university, having the wits to keep up with the amazingly hard testing. May it be noted that most of these students also carried a nice wallet.

This, of course, was all in favour of Cave Johnson, founder and principal of the Aperture Science and Math university.  
>As his motavational speeches inquired there were 3 things Cave adored.<br>His personal assistent and student counciler Caroline, who was also his wife.  
>Lemons, Especially when they were combustible, no-one knew what that was about.<p>

And Testing.

Oh, how he loved testing things and people alike.

Written exams where given on a daily bases at Aperture.

Also physical and medical examinations were taken of every student each month.

To an outsider this may seem strange, It was kind of weird come to think of it...

The students went with it anyway, because there were'nt many other options.

Most of them stayed at school during weekends or even vacations, as they had come from every possible wind direction, from all over the world.  
>The school had a large dorm attached to it however, so it was no problem.<p>

Indeed, Aperture science and math university was well known, yet it gave of a mysterious vibe. Like something dark was lurking behind it.  
>A well kept secret, known by few but felt by many, was waiting to show it's face.<p>

How soon, only the future would tell...


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: here the story realy starts. Revieuws and/or critiques are appreciated. Also, i'm not a native English speaker so feel free to correct any mistakes. Let me now what you think.

**Serendipity: chapter 1**

You think being the smart one inbetween a bunch of idiots is hard, try it when all those morons think they're better than you...

It was precisely what Chell had to go through all day at Aperture...  
>Every morning, her alarm clock rang, sounding like a death penalty in Chell's ears.<p>

Trying to shrug the lack of sleep of her body, she got up to do the necessary preps needed before she could show herself in public.

Chell liked her school, she found it challenging to keep up with the difficult tests, but this probably was what excited her in the first place.

And she had friends here, which was suprising due to the fact she just wasn't much of a people's person.

Even less to the kind of people that went to Aperture.

She washed her face, put her hair in a loose ponytail and went to put on her uniform.

Ugh, orange and dark blue, who would ever think of such a color combination...

In her own mind, Chell had devided the students into little groups, depending on their popularity, money and intelect.

It had only taken her 3 days to realize that this school would never be what she wanted it to be, but after 3 years she had gotten used to it.

At her old highschool Chell always got teased for getting good grades.

Ridiculous, if you asked her, but popularity was endemic.

At Aperture science and math university she had hoped to find like minded people, proud on their wits and uncarring about reputation.

Boy, had she been wrong.

Getting into this school, had turned out to be one of the hardest things Chell had ever done, luckily she had an exces amount of stubborness and was known to be obstinate.

She managed to get herself some sort of scholarship, cause the kind of money Aperture normally asked wasn't the kind of money she had to spare.

In return, she was the pride of the school, maybe even one of Director Cave's favorite students, as Chell succeeded every year without having to put some cash in the so called 'I did my best' charity.  
>Something many of the other student couldn't say, not that they bothered.<p>

Leaving her dorm room, she slowly made her way out of the hall, in the general direction of the boy's dorms.  
>Of course they were seperated, Aperture had it's standars.<br>Once arrived she quickly found room 214, not needing to to look for it, as she did this every morning.  
>Sighing because of the lack of noise, Chell knocked the door loudly, not caring about waking up the other remaining students.<p>

They were probably already up anyway.

When no answer came, she stomped the door harshly again.

From inside a muffled voice uttering sound of strings of curses reached her ear, then the sound of somebody toppeling out of their bed and stumbeling around a bit.

Chell had to try hard to not sigh again, though she did roll her eyes.  
>It was not hard for her to imagine Wheathley rushing trough his messed up room, trying to find his uniform. He was such an airhead...<br>When the dorm room finally opened it revealed a boy, bareley older than Chell herself.  
>He looked at her apologetical from beneath his blonde bangs for a moment, then smiled broadly, making her roll her eyes at him.<p>

"Chell?" It was more of a statement than an actual question but still she nodded in return.  
>This is how it went every morning, now he was going to complain about his alarm clock...<p>

"...and I swear I was sure I put it on. Positive, really. Then it didn't went off. Why? I don't know... The bloody thing didn't make a sound this morning..."

And so he rambled on the entire way down to the Lucnhroom.  
>Chell had learned long ago to tune out Wheatley's babling and only listen to the important things he said... a neccesity if you ever wanted to spend a single day around him.<p>

Upon entering the refter, a wave of noise and smell hit them (not that it did anything to shut Wheatley up) as they took trays.  
>Chell looked around the room, scanning the students eating, talking and preping their make-up or hair.<br>'Today again...' she though. About a 2 months ago she had started to notice something that seemed uncared for by the others.

The number of students was slimming.

Not with a noteworthy speed, only one or two a week, but she had sensed it either way.

It was just one of her things...

After getting their food, Chell and Wheatley seated themself at a table, almost in the far corner at the room.  
>In some cheesy highschool movie it might be reffered to as: 'the dork table', not that they minded.<br>Chell couldn't care less of what others though of her, for Wheatley on the other hand, it was more likely he was just oblivious.

He was oblivious to alot of things.  
>For one, he didn't notice when the other students mocked him in a jokingly way, thought it were compliments. He didn't get that they all though he was a moron, he hated that word.<br>And he probably didn't know the rumor about his parents going around.

Wheatley didn't fit in with neither of the 2 groups. (stinking rich or extremely smart)  
>Mostly, it was definite he didn't belong to the second.<p>

It was not that Wheatley was THAT stupid, it was more that he was a bit clueless, naive and most of all prone to make bad decisions.  
>But even if Chell was annoyed endless by this, he was still her friend, being the only one even trying to be nice to her.<p>

Good-natured but ill-judged.

Therefor, he should rely on his parents money.

Problem: they didn't have that much.

Wheatley came from a family neither rich nor poor, middle class.

Then how the hell did he made it into Aperture?

As rumor had it, His parents were important politician or the like, who could make or break Aperture's reputation.  
>Together with the assumption they knew about some of Aperture's 'dirty secrets' it was only logic their son each year passed, with failing grades.<p>

When asked about it, Wheatley would most of the time shrug.

Chell could only suppose he didn't know more about it himself.

".. and I thought it was weird, but you don't notice something like that at the moment, right? I didn't! So this bird..."

In the time they were busy eating, the subject had shifted between food, Wheatley's dream, lasers, dream, potato's, his dream again, and now he was going on about birds...

"And there were cubes EVERYWERE! You were there too." he spoke between bites of sugar cereal.

'Sugar?' Chell though '..Oh boy, this is going to be a long day.'  
>She looked around again, seeing if somebody she knew had gone this time.<br>"And I was awesome at hacking, ... I think. Anyway, then we had to...'  
>Absentmindly, Chell nodded.<br>Tracing her eyes from person to person, lingering just a bit longer then needed on 2 persons in particular.

In the other corner of the room she could she the 'popular table', sitting at it, mostly people she barely knew.

On the far end of the table however, she found the girl. Long blond hair, so light you would swear it was white, tracing down her back in 2 ponytails.

Sometimes it seemed to go on forever, but it was just very long.  
>Her face looked stoic, like always, making Chell wonder if she had emotions at all.<p>

Everybody knew she probably hadn't.

Glados, as was her name, was the top student of Aperture, getting grades slightly better than Chell herself.  
>Neither of the girl were envious though, no reason to be.<p>

Glados was however quiet popular, rumured to be the daughter of no-other than Principal Cave Johnnson himself, though she never implied it.

Actualy, Glados just never spoke at all, if she did in extraordinary situation, it was alway formal and cold.

Chell had caught her making a sarcastic, biting comment sometimes, but these talktive moods never lasted.  
>Glados just got surrounded by a lot of girls, who pretended they didn't notice she didn't appreciate their company, she never attempted to shoo them away or something.<p>

She just looked at them with her light grey eyes like she was wondering how any-one could be so stupid...

On second thought, she probably was wondering that. Chell often though the same thing.

Also siting at that table, was somebody Chell much more enjoyed to look at.  
>His dark hair tracing his forehead, not too short, but not too long either.<br>Green eyes, emerald to be more precise, shining with light.

He was perfect.

Chell snaped out of her little distraction.  
>The boy she had just been so shamelessly daydreaming about was CC, wich was a short for his full name obviously.<p>

He was, the embodied perfection, at least to Chell.  
>Many girls seemed to share her obsesion however, as he was always surrounded by pretty girls squeling if he laughed politly at them.<br>You would guesse the boys felt invaded by his pressence, but that was untrue.

Fact was, CC was just a very nice person and everybody liked him.

Well... almost everybody.

Wheatley had gone silent.  
>It wasn't abnormal for Chell to look away from him while he was talking, infact that was more of a tendency.<br>But when she was staring at 'him', Wheatley knew she realy wasn't listening.  
>He always felt a pinge of that emotion, jealousy perhaps, though it might as well could be something else, he wasn't very good with that kind of thing.<p>

He didn't know why he felt it, he and Chell were'nt anything more than friends, still he felt a bit neglected.  
>Wheatley never did figure out what was so great about him anyway.<p>

He looked good, sure, but not THAT good.

And sure, he was friendly and polite, well-mannered, bloody annoying.

Nobody could possibly be without flaw, Wheatley just had to find what was his...

Seeing Chell stare at CC so obvious only made him peevish.  
>" I'm so great with my perfect eyes and perfect smile.." he mumbled childlike, making Chell snap her head at him in an angry manner, though she wasn't realy mad at him.<p>

She had gotten used to Wheatley's enviousness over CC, but it wasn't her fault the later one had just the right kind of green eyes to drown in...

Chell got snaped out of her short daydream again when the school bel rang, announcing the start of class.

Hurriedly she got up, grabbing her black backpack and swinging it over her left shoulder.

Whealtey gingerly did the same, glancing over at Chell.

" See you later." he said, while starting to walk to the nearest exit.

Instead of responsing, Chell waved at him shortly, before heading to the other side of the room.  
>In Aperture you could either go for more science or more math.<br>Chell had choosen for more math, because every-one claimed it was the harder of the two.

Figures Wheatley took sience.

This also meant they didn't have all their classes together, not that it bothered Chell.

She barely survived the lessons they DID share.

Sighing, Chell seated herself, noticing the silent girl that always sat next to her wasn't there today. Now that she thought of it, she hadn't seen her in the lunchroom either.

Suddenly, a young girl, or at least she looked terrible underaged to be in the 3th grade, went to sit on the empty chair.  
>"Hi there! My name is Penny, I'm pretty new here!" She stated, dark blond curls bouncing in exited heaps.<br>Chell and the previous girl had a silent rule, wich was to be silent. This one seemed a bit harder to shut up.  
>Like having Wheatley as a friend wasn't enough.<p>

It was going to be a long day indeed...


	3. Chapter 2

The testpaper had barely touched Chell's desk, when she grabbed it and hurriedly turned it around.

Her eyes scanned the paper rapidly, wanting to take in every mistake she had made, so she would never make them again.

Not that she had made many.

Her eyes rested on her grade at the top of her paper: 48 out of 50.

'Not bad' she decided, seeing that her only fault was a little miscalculation in the last exercise.

She had refused to give up, even though she knew she wasn't completly right, and her persistence had still earned her some points.  
>" That's A-MA-ZING " Penny's voice squelled from behind her. " You must be realy smart! I haven't got any tests yet, but if they all look like this, I'll be happy just to pass."<p>

For a moment, Chell felt a bit peeped on, but she was glad the compliment sounded sincere, and didn't feel like the nosyness the other students often displayed.  
>Her grades were indeed outstanding, maybe this girl wasn't so bad after all.<p>

5 full minutes had passed since somebody dropped the test on his desk, but still Wheatley couldn't bring himself to turn it over and face his missteps.

The blankness that was the backhand of the page, felt strangely comforting, in crontast with what the other side had to offer.

Maybe starring hardly into it could make it melt, he considered, but this was, of course, just foolish wishing.

Eventually he couldn't take it anymore, shut his eyes close and turned the paper right side up.

He peeked trough his lashes, only to feel confidence be replaced by utter dispair.

This was ridiculous, 10 out of 50? That wasn't even the half.

He laid his arms across the desk, resting his head on it sideways and letting go of the breath he had been holding in.

He could never ever memorize the complete periodic table.

All other schools he knew only had to learn small parts of it, or even were allowed to keep it next to them while making exams.  
>It's mad!<br>Suddendly a coughing noice could be heard next to him, realizing somebody was probably trying to get his attention Wheatley opened his eyes again.

Well that was odd, worse even, it was plain weird.

He could see part of one of the boy's uniforms, looking up he realized the owner was the last person in the world he wanted to see.

Well ok, maybe it would be worst if it were his parents, or a serial killer, but this person came in quiet high on that list.  
>CC was looking down at him, Wheatley looking up at CC, but neither said anything.<p>

This akward silence lasted for a bit, both boys wondering if they should break it.

Wheatley figured CC was the one coming to him, so wasn't he supposed to say something, but when he didn't Wheatley tried to sound as non-annoyed as posible.

"What?"

"Oh, sorry." CC said, seemingly only just noticing he had been staring. "I wanted to ask you something."

"Yeah?"  
>Normally Wheatley had a hard time shutting himself up, but now he couldn't wait to have this conservation over with and tried to do so by using as little words a humanly posible.<p>

CC however, paused between every sentence, like he was nervous.  
>"That girl you hang out with often, well, all the time actualy."<p>

"Chell?" the suprise in Wheatleys voice was evident "What about her?"  
>"Uhm, I was wondering if you would give her a message, from me?"<p>

Wheatley narrowed his eyes a bit suspiciously.

CC pretented not to notice and continued: "I would appreciate it if you told her I'd like to talk to her. She can come by my room tonight, say around seven."

"Chell isn't that much of a talking person."

CC laughed softly, the kind of laugh girls would faint from and, by extention, the kind of laugh Wheatley didn't want to get from him.

"I know." CC assured "but I think it's one of the many things I found to be cute about her, and i'm not stupid, I saw her watching me this morning, I think she digs me. If she doesn't come, I know she's not interested"

"She isn't" Wheatley nearly screamed, making some other students glance over in interest.

CC looked a bit taken aback for a moment, sincerely he said:

"She IS free isn't she? Or am I disturbing your little private affair?"

CC knew just as well as all the others that Wheatley had a crush on Chell, but he didn't know if Wheatley had the guts to ask her out, because he didn't know if it was mutual.  
>CC didn't like to feel like he had interfered with something.<br>"No, there is nothing like that.." Wheatley hastily affirmed, knowing he had walked right into that.

"So you'll tell her?" CC seemed pleased, starting to walk away without waiting for the answer,

Leaving Wheatley uncomfortable with the promise he had just made.

That afternoon The entire 3th year had PE, wich was something Aperture pressed on not as much as most other subjects, but they still thought it to be important.

"A healthy mind in a healthy body!" principal Johnson always said.

Most of the students were happy with this policy, as gymnastics was something they were good at, or at least better than they were with their brain.  
>Wheatley had found that he attracted accidents and didn't share their opinion.<p>

But it was also a great oppertunity to check out the other sex, wich was important.  
>Technically the rules of the school required them to wear a horrible orange jumpsuit for this lesson. Something every student agreed on was ludicrous at the least, so they found refuge in the smaller letters in the Apperture guidebook.<br>It stated that, if the students believed it to be too hot in the gym, they were allowed to switch their orange jumperpants for an also by the school provided black short.

When they knew they were going to sport inside, most of them also took of their top, revealing what was under them, a white T-shirt for the boy's and a tank top in the same color for the girls.

The moment they entered the room, coming straight out of the changing rooms and lining up, boy's left and girls right, whispering filled the air.  
>The bare slender legs of the girls and their round chest visible in the tank tops made most of the boy's whistle at them in a jokingly manner, their female victims pretending to be offended.<p>

The girls in turn, gossiped shamelessly about their male colleagues, throwing them air kisses and admiring thier muscles trough the wafer-thin fabric all the while giggling in a childlike manner.

The whole display made Chell sick.  
>Some of the other ones didn't go with it either, mostly because they were too shy.<p>

Glados looked rather unfaced by it, CC, who was smilling at the girls in a more polite then dirty manner, and of course Wheatley.

Chell was wondering what was going on with him though.

At lunch, he had been particular silent, seemingly thinking about something.  
>Both of these things meant Chell had to be concerned.<br>At that moment however, she had decided not to press it, knowing Wheatley would probably deny anything was wrong.  
>She knew from past experience he would just say it if it was important enough.<p>

Even know he seemed a bit distracted, poundering something.

Wheatley was indeed mulling over something. Wheter or not to give Chell CC's message.

He had been intending to deliver it, truely, but the longer he'd been thinking about, the more it seemed like a bad idea.

Chell would be overjoyed for something like this to happen, so who was he to keep this from her.

He wondered what would come forth from it.

If they started dating Wheatley would be the odd one out.  
>'Now that is a selfish though.' he shunned himself, though he still feared for it to happen.<p>

He had obviously also considered keeping quiet about the whole ordeal.

If he was lucky, CC would think Chell had turned him down, and wouldn't come questioning Wheatley about it.

And Chell never had to know.

Then again, that would be extremely egocentric.

In the end, Wheatley decided it sucked to have a conscience.

"Hey, Wheatly, watch out!" a voice screamed from behind him making him turn in wonder.

The football hit him straight in the face, the pure force of it making him fall on his ass.

The smack in combination with the sheer embarrassment made his face turn scarlet.

Chell saw the ball coming from a long way down, figures Wheatley didn't.

She knew something like this was going to happen, Wheatley just atracted disasters, and P.E was a perfect time for them to happen.

She was by his side in a moments notice, beating all the other students to it and looked down at him in a skeptical way.

This was such a routine by now.  
>She picked up his glasses, that hadn't cracked luckly, and handed them to him.<p>

He looked up at her, displaying an uncertain emotion, most likely shame that she had to witness the shamefull event.

Chell extended her hand to him, noticing some blood was trailing out of his nose.

The boy's never did hold themselfs back while playing football.  
>Wheatley took her offer, pulling himself up.<br>'He is probably seeing stars right now' Chell mused.

On that moment 2 other persons approached.  
>One of them was an ebony-haired boy, who immediatly bent down to retrieve the football, breathing an half-heartedly apology, before heading of to continue playing.<p>

The other one was their teacher, without having to say anything Chell nodded at him and pulled Wheatley with her to the infirmary.

He propped the tissue against his nose and sat back.

It wasn't that bad, he definitly had worse.

Chell was looking at him intensly, like she was boring holes in his facade.

"What?" he asked.

Chell had found a notebook and a pen at the nurse station, and held both pinned to her chest.

In response to his question, she started scribbling something down on the paper after which she turned it around for him to read.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." he assured. "It's not like this has never happened before. Bloody football came out of nowhere this time though."  
>She started writing again.<p>

"There is something else." it said.

Though it were only some letters on paper, Wheatley could read their tone.

For a moment, he wondered if she was worried there was something wrong.  
>Then he realized she was probably just thinking he was an idiot.<p>

Meanwhile, Chell had scribbled something in addition to her last sentence.

"Tell me!" it demanded.

Wheatley rubbed the back of his head with his right hand, keeping the tissues in place with the other.  
>"CC told me to tell you, he wants to see you. He asked if you would to come to his room this evening around seven... If you don't go, he nows your not interested."<p>

Death silence hung in the air a while, until Chell turned her notebook around again to reveal something she had apperently just written.  
>"Were you planning on keeping this from me?"<p>

"Uh.." Great, Chell had caught him in the act just now, how stupid could he be.

She shoved the notebook closer in an angry manner, she wanted an answer.

Wheatley lowered his eyes, he was guilty as charged.

"Maybe..." he admitted, "Are you going?"  
>She looked at him venomously before writting a final sentence.<p>

Then, Chell laid the notebook on the chair and stromed off.  
>'Maybe.' it read.<p>

It was already 5 minutes untill 7'o clock.  
>Chell was standing infront of her mirror, eyeing herself, suddendly becoming very self-aware.<br>She was about to go see the boy of her dreams, then why wasn't she happy.

She felt a bit guilty for being so harsh on Wheatley.

It had, in fact, been only 3'o clock when she found out about the whole situation.  
>Maybe he would have told her on his own.<p>

She couldn't stay mad at him for long anyway, you can't say no to his puppy eyes.  
>Lunch had never been quieter though.<p>

Chell decided she just had to go by later on the evening. But first things first.

She left her room, steadly making her way to the boy dorm.

It was almost time, she wasn't nervous, she never was.

She was feeling a bit exuberant at most.  
>She came to a halt in front of CC's door, knocking it softly.<br>When no response came, she was a bit suspicious.

CC was aspecting her after all, was he still somewhere downstairs?

Chell knocked again, much harder this time, only to be ignored.

Was this a joke or what?

For a moment, she wanted to just turn around and call it off, she wasn't in the mood for this.  
>But something wasn't right.<p>

CC would never stand her up like this, he wasn't that kind a boy.

She tried the doorknob, not expecting it to actually work, but it did.

The room was trashed, worse even, it was turned upside down.  
>Books and papers littered everywhere, the chair laying sideways on the ground and the sheats forming a heap on the floor.<br>Chell had read enough detective novels to see there had been a struggle here.

Not a long one, mind you, but CC was gone and not by his own will.  
>Chell didn't panic, she closed the door behind her, to make sure nobody would see and by extention destroy the evidence.<br>Going to the teachers would be the wise thing to do, but she knew somebody who was much closer.

The desk-light was the only thing illuminating the room, giving it an eerie glow.

Wheatley was struggling over a spanish sentence:  
>'Estas usando este software de traduccion incorrectamente. Por favor consulta el manual.'<p>

He was pretty sure it had something to do with software, as that was the only english word in the entire scentence...  
>Suddendly his roomdoor flung open, hitting the wall with a loud bang, making him tumble of his chair in schock.<p>

In his doorway stood Chell, looking dead serious while grabbing pen and paper from his desk.

Wheatley had yet to decide if he were to be glad she had apperently forgiven him for being so unthoughfull, or angry at her for giving him a heart attack.

He didn't get any time to react however when Chell barged over to him shoving the note in his face, anxius for him to read it.  
>Wheatley adjusted his glasses, which had come toppeling off in the whole proces and read what was making Chell so bloody impatient.<p>

'CC is abducted' it said and his eyes grew wide.


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: thanks for all the favorites/alerts. I appreciate it.**

** At Curtisimo: I don't realy agree wiht the thought of saying CC is the companion cube. Just like Atlas isn't Atlas and Penny isn't P-body. They don't talk in the game, so they're merely OC's heavly based on the in-game characters and my interpetation of their personality's. Wheatley and Glados have are more worked out characters so it's easier to say that they 'are' their in-game equivalent. On another note, the personality cores are in this fic, they just haven't appeared yet.**

Aperture was in disorder.  
>Chell still hadn't figured out how it had happened, but even if she had, it was already too late.<p>

A rumor, as small as it is, can spread like a fire.  
>Wheatley hadn't been a help, Chell should have forseen that, and insisted on going to a superior immediatly, matter of 'Warning them early.'<br>Chell had asked Wheatley to do this, so she could have at least some time at the 'crime scene.'

She rummaged trough the papers for nearly 10 minutes without finding anything noteworthy, before a teacher showed up.

Once the graveness of the situation struck them comepletly, panic spread.

"Probably though I was joking or something..." Wheatley said to Chell, while she looked with disbelief at their English teacher was looking for CC under the bed.

Soon, the students were instucted to help with the search over the intercom, and anybody who had any helpfull information about CC's last known whereabouts were asked to report to principal Cave Johnson himself.

This was serious business.

When the entire parade didn't turn anything up, the intercom stated all students had to calm down and return to their rooms.

It took some time to convince them their safety was ensured; but in the end, the studenst were tired and there wasn't much else to do.  
>Chell didn't sleep a minute that night.<p>

The lunchroom was full of whispers the following morning.

Everybody was disscussing the kidnapping of CC, or at least that's what they thought it was.

Police was petrolling the perrimeters of the school and CC's parent were informed.

The weirdest story's were spreading, regarding the event.  
>That the school had received a letter of the kidnappers asking for ransom, that CC had run away and trashed his room to make it look like a kidnapping, and even that CC was dead.<p>

Because Chell seemed affected by this a lot, Wheatley was trying to distract her by telling her some random story's about his youth.

Turned out he had a rather bad experience with potato batery's.

"... I never did figure out how I got it to explode." He concluded his story, as they sat down on their regular place.

His tale hadn't helped.

Chell had been thinking it over all night, and even now, her brain was running at full force.

While the logic option would have been a kidnapping, it didn't seem right.

Aperture was silent either way, something like this was a blow for their clean record.

A school full of rich kids is a perfect target for money hunters, but as far as she knew, there had not been any ransom demanded yet.  
>The thing that bothered Chell the most were the other disappearances.<br>Most had gone by unnoticed, Apperture was a big ass school after all, and when somebody did ask there was always an excuse at hand.

They had moved to another country, they had changed schools, or such.

Their rooms were always clean and emptied, by the looks of it the student had done it himself, and their was no reason to have suspicion.  
>Why was this one so different, was something else the cause for this or had the abductor just been careless for once.<p>

If so, what was the reason for this sloppyness.

Chell got pulled out of her thoughts when some new persons joined them at their table.

Wheatley was just finnishing another story, again of his youth, about some weird trauma of birds, when Penny marched towards the table, pulling someone with her by the arm.

When she arrived, she sat down happely, pulling the boy down beside her, while breathing like she had just run a marathon.

Admitted, Aperture's lunch room was big, but not THAT big.

She laughed broadly at Chell. "T'was hard do find you," she stated, faking an angry expression, "All the way down here in the corner." She gestured around her like Chell didn't knew were she was.

Then Penny turned to Wheatley like she had just noticed he was there too, and extended a hand to him, which he took a bit akwardly.

"I'm Penny," she cheered "You're Wheatley, right? I heard a lot about you from the others." She pointed to some boys sitting on another table.

Chell wondered what exactly Penny had been told.  
>"Oh, how impolite I am," She giggled. "This is Atlas, he's also new here."<br>She was, of course refering to the boy she had dragged along, who on mentioning of his name looked up and smiled at them.

Then he bended over his brainzpuzzle again, mumbling that he was a bit busy.

Atlas' eyes were a dark blue color, much the same as Wheatley's, Chell mused.

"So... you heard about it right?" Penny asked, obviously talking about CC.

"It's so weird, how could they do this without anybody noticing... I wonder."  
>She looked thoughfull, but didn't think long about it and instead started munching on her sandwich.<p>

Wheatley glanced over to Chell, she was thinking about CC's disappearance too, even though he had tried to avoid the subject the entire morning.  
>It wasn't to be helped when the entire school was gossiping about it, he guessed.<p>

"I think this thing will be sorted out quit quickly." He said, more trying to assure himself then Chell.

"CC has rich parents right, they must have the FBI on it or something."

Nobody responded, the silence making him feel uncomfortable, like the lack of sound often did to him for some reason.

"You know..." Penny finally said. "I heard the window didn't show any signs of break and entry. Does that mean they got in trough the door? Thats like, so freaky. I'm a bit scared.' She admited, graspings Atlas' arm.

Chell wasn't sure what to think of that.

She had her notebook lying beside her like always, scribbling something on it.

"What's you doing?" Penny looked a bit confused.

"Chell doesn't talk." Wheatley provided.

"She can't?"

"She won't."

"Why?"

Wheatley made the 'beats me' gesture, knowing it was one of the only things Chell refused to confine to him.

She turned the paper so that everybody could see it.

_The school isn't doing enough, I don't know why, but it looks like they are so careless about what happened. It's wrong._

"I know right!" Penny almost laughed, but seemed a bit worried at the same time.

"I mean, this isn't normal around here or anything, right?"

Chell shook her head, it definetly wasn't.

The night before, after being send back to their rooms by some teachers, Chell found she wasn't able to sleep.

She was worried and suspicious about the ordeal, she had to do something.

The school was going to be one big hellhole in the morning, she got sick even thinking about it.

Secretly she hoped none of the other students knew she was the one first on the scene.

To relax a bit, she decided to read her newest detective novel, one she got from the library at Aperture, but it turned out to be more then that.

It was called: 'The school mystery' and in it, a female student uncovered a secret her school would have much rather kept hidden.

She had an idea.

English was boring.

At least, that was Chell's opinion, luckly she had this class together with Wheatley, who was sitting next to her seeminglly distracted by some dust partical in the air.

This was the perfect moment to set her plan in motion.

Subtle, she slipped a tiny piece of paper in his direction.

A lot less subtle Wheatleytook it, raising it to eye level to see what it read:

_let's solve this mystery._

Such small worlds but their meaning shocked him to awareness immediatly.

"Are you mad?"

Chell shook her head in response, also meaning she wasn't going to discuss it right now.

She had already made up her mind, she was going to do this, with his help or not.

Knowing him, he wouldn't leave her to do this alone, that's how it always went.

Now, all that was left to do was find out were to start.

CC's room had been closed off, but maybe she could still take a look there, just in case she missed something yesterday night.

Otherwise she would just have to make a list of all dissapeared students she could think of and find what they had in common.

It would take a while, she was aware of that, but who else would do anything.

Chell was sure she and Wheatley could solve this, they were the only one who would try.

Somewhere in the hallway, a darkly clothed figure made it's way towards the higer floors.

This was bad, they wouldn't be pleased by the accident, but it was sure nobody suspected anything.

Everything had been covered, no evidence was left behind. It was just too early.

They could dismiss it, but it was a setback.

It would force them to be even more carefull, to tie lose ends even more secure.

This could be solved.

Nobody knew, it was sure of that.

It had to be, or punishment would be severe.

It would end up like the others, like the ones it took.

They wouldn't be pleased with it at all, but they wouldn't discard it either.

It knew they needed it, and it was going to use it to it's full advantage.

It had a secret agenda, like they probably did to.

It was just a matter of getting to it's goal first.

The figure turned a corner sharply, not noticing what fell from it's pocket.

When lunch arrived, most of the school had already seemingly forgotten all about the dissappearance. These people had tiny concentration spans.

The normal turmoil of the day had set in, students littering across the schools campus doing various things.

Wendnesday they had lessons for half of the day, just like highschool.

Sitting on one of the bleachers, Chell was writting down all she had to take into considiration about the 'case'.

Whealey, right next to her, was again talking about god knows what.

Chell looked up for a moment, noting she didn't see either Atlas or Penny anywhere.

The 2 of them seemed to get along well, but acted quiet secretive about it.

Well, nothing to worry about, there were more pressing matters at hand after all.

Chell was having a hard time making a list of the missing students, it weren't THAT many realy, but she just barely knew any of them.

CC was gone, that was for sure.

And since Penny had taken her seat, the silent girl Chell normaly sat with was gone as well.

At this point, she regretted never asking for her name.

Then there were 3 other boy's she knew about, but she couldn't recall their names at all.  
>This was fucking stressfull alright.<br>She also remembered noticing a girl that often talked to her in the hallway, for no apparent reason, was gone as well. She had never talked back, but she kept coming, it was depressing to chell to think she had secluded herself so much.

Or maybe she was excluding them.

She shook her head at the though, she had no time to be distracted.

Well 6 persons already, wasn't much considering the nearly 1000 students in Aperture.

Come to think of it, quiet the coincidence she happened to knew all of them.

It was the first thing she put down on her paper, tough she could hardly take it serious.

This couldn't possibly have something to do with her.

Wheatley rummaged trough his backpack, curoisly schearching for something.

It took him a while to realize it was not there, he had probably left his book back in the english classroom. Most of the times he would not care, he wasn't much of a reading person, but it was for an extremly important book report after all.

Sighing, he informed Chell of the situation. (she was still busy on her 'suspect list') and made his way back into the school buildings.  
>There, in the darkened hallway's, he rounded the corner and saw something strange lying on the ground.<p>

It was a notebook of some sorts, black of color, (which made Wheatley wonder how he even spotted it at all) seemingly dropped per accident.  
>He was about to open it, maybe it had the name of the owner in it, when somebody rounded the corner sharply, almost running straight into him.<p>

The mysterious person barely withheld a gasp, before loudly exclaiming,

"That's mine. Thanks for finding it" while pulling the notebook out of Wheatley's hands.

He was too dazed to answer before the figure had already taken their leave.

However, out of the little notebook fell a folded paper.

Wheatley was wondering who this person was, unrecognizable because of the hoodie she had been wearing, not that it had mattered in this darkness.

He was sure she had a women voice though.

Picking up the paper, (whoever she was, she dropped her stuff a lot) he folded it open, only to be confused even more.

The paper had several names written on it, including CC's.

That english book would have to wait...


	5. Chapter 4

A/N: I know it has been over 2 months since I last updated this story and I'm sorry. My personal life has been very busy and writing was (sadly) the last thing I could think of.

I have not left this story though, now that it's vacation I have plenty of time to write and make it up to the people who waited.  
>(Not that there are many, I barely get any reviews -.-')<p>

**enjoy**

CC never had wondered what death felt like, never had a reason to.  
>Now he did.<br>A burning pain consumed his chest only worsening an all to present headache.  
>It was hard to remember when the pain started, all he knew was that it was horrible.<br>Also, he was unable to feel any of his limbs.  
>He had yet to decide if this was a good thing (no pain) or a bad thing, he reckoned the later.<br>Recently, the pain had started to dull and his head became slightly less dazed.  
>How long had he been here?<p>

"It seems the testing went well, I'm very proud." a familair voice said.

He was unable to see it's owner, as his eyes felt stuck in their current closed position.

"Don't worry, dear." the voice continued, faking sympathy. "The pain will subdue. Your the most promising of yet."

Who was it? He knew this person, but everything was messed up.  
>He wasn't even sure if it was male or female.<p>

"The clock is ticking though, such a burden," the voice sighed, " Enjoy the tests."

It had left, leaving him blind and immobile, still in pain.  
>Somebody just had to come and save him.<p>

People often say that the trill of solving a mystery could be found in the unknown danger or surprises.

Chell agreed with that, shining a light on the dark was an achievement she now was determinded to make. She would have to look into these people however, cause as it was now, she didn't knew enough of any of them to link them together.  
>There had to be a connection, she would find it weird if the kidnapper would just take people at random. Maybe if she...<br>That was when Wheatley came running trough the door, back outside, a shocked expression on his face and without his English book.

People often say the hidden treat was exciting, lurking over you was something mysterious and unknown, finding the answers was an adventure.

Wheatley wouldn't agree with that, from the small amount of mystery novels he ever read, or read part of, most ended well. Still, the hero would have to face horrors and pain, both which he happily avoided.  
>Sure, Chell might think it to be thrilling or whatever, he didn't.<p>

He ran back into the courtyard, nearly falling several times when doing so, to show Chell his 'discovery'.  
>She regarded him in a suspicious manner, wondering what had gotten into him so suddenly.<br>A little bit out of breath he tried to explain what happened.  
>Tried would be the keyword here, cause his rambling made little sense.<p>

Chell rolled her eyes and knocked her friend on the head slightly.  
>Wheatley in turn looked at her for a moment, presumably wondering what she did that for.<br>Then, he handed her the paper with the words: 'I think we have a problem.'

She looked it over briefly, thinking Wheatley was overacting again, wouldn't have surprised her if that was the case.  
>Then her eyes returned to the last letters on the page, slowly moving up when she realized what she was reading.<br>The small piece of paper resembled her own list very much, with some additions in between.  
>It were names, writing in big letters so they took up a lot of space, but none the less ordered carefully across the lines.<br>The last name was of course CC's. Crossed out in what seemed to be a hastily it were other names, each crossed out as well.  
>9, Chell quickly noted, and 6 of them she already had on her list.<p>

She was kind of proud of herself for a moment, but got interrupted when Wheatley apparently realized he still hadn't told her anything.

"It was part of a book, but I... I lost it." he suddenly gasped, bowing his head in an apologetic gesture.

Chell nodded, she had expected something like that already.  
>Didn't matter, it was a huge help anyway.<br>Chell smiled up to her friend, thank full for the new information, and frankly kind of proud as well.

In the corner of her eye she spotted Penny and Atlas, making their way over the field in their direction. Chell slipped the papers in between her science books before they got close enough to notice anything.  
>It wasn't that she didn't trust their new friends, but at the moment she figured it was better to not let them in on it yet.<p>

Upon arrival, Penny put her hands together like she was going to pray, and breathed in deep.  
>Chell knew she had something 'exciting' to say and briefly wondered how Penny as well as Wheatley were able to talk so long without gasping for air.<br>Maybe they had 2 pair of longs.

"Somebody told me that they had heard somebody else say that she knew somebody who saw something the night CC disappeared." She exclaimed it like she had jus made the discovery of the week.

Chell could almost feel the sweat drop running down the side of her head, like in those Japanese cartoons she had sometimes seen.  
>Of course Penny didn't notice and continued:<p>

" It was really freaky! Principal Johnson was talking to somebody in the hallway saying 'it is time!'" That last part came out in an heavily deepened voice by Penny.  
>"And he said this to some dark clothed person just outside his office, then this person went in the direction of the boy's dorms, too. That's just scary!" She added as an afterthought.<p>

Chell frowned, that was weird indeed...

"That's a coincidence, I just saw a person all in black in the hallway, like in your description..." Wheatley mused.

It was silent for a moment, until his eyes widened.

"Ow! That was probably the same person, wasn't it. Makes sense..."

" I don't think that's a coincidence at all." Atlas voiced, shaking his head wearily.  
>"Something going on here."<p>

Chell had no time to be surprised by Atlas' perceptiveness when the bell rang.  
>Thank full to avoid the subject, she got up, waved to her 2 new friends and grabbed Wheatley by his school uniform sleeve.<p>

He was muttering something about how the kidnapper may have seen him and now be out for revenge.

"What if he knows I know something... Well, actually I don't know anything really, but he doesn't know that, you know? What if he tries to kill me!"

Chell shook her head, it would surprise her if the kidnapper would bother with an idiot such as him.

"Good politics are the fundament of every good society." The teacher explained.

He wasn't bothered by the fact that almost all his students were using his social classes to catch up on some sleep.  
>He would get them at the end of the year.<p>

Also Wheatley had started to doze of when Chell shoved him, roughly bringing him back to reality once more.  
>He rubbed his head dismayed. Why did she always had to be so impatient.<br>A paper had been slipped in his direction by Chell.

_The whole nutcase-table has gone, how could nobody notice that?_

'The nutcase-table...' Wheatley though back. 'Oh right... I know them.'

It was mentioned before that the table Wheatley and Chell had always sat, and now also Atlas and Penny, was considered the nerd-table.  
>There is, however, a table that was looked down upon even more then theirs.<p>

Some years back a couple of kids had sat their who Wheatley only vaguely remembered, just that they were not right in the head.  
>They had all 4 left school when he and Chell were first years so he didn't know them really.<br>They had been replaced by 3 equably crazy kids, whom Wheatley had equably less knowledge of.

'Knowledge'... where did he pick up that word.. 'equably' as well.

Whatever, no time to be distracted.  
>Wheatley shook his head roughly, getting some weird looks from the people in his class, which he didn't notice of course.<p>

The 3 new kids were even less popular then they had been, which meant a lot, and now they were all gone.

Chell was right, how couldn't anybody notice that, people always made fun of them.  
>But on the other hand, it had just finished having exams the previous week, so most of the students had been to busy to notice anything. To busy partying that is, why study if you have money.<p>

Chell patted her feet impatiently on the ground.

She knew Wheatley would take some time to read the note, then process it but this was ridiculous!  
>Luckily the teacher was used to him spacing of so didn't bother to do anything.<p>

On the other hand, now she had plenty of time to go over her list.

Of the 9 people on the possible kidnappers list, though she managed to identify all of them, she only knew 5 of them.  
>Wait, that was pretty much.<br>CC, the silent girl that had always sat by her and the 3 weirdo's who sat at the nutcase table.  
>She had read their names but forgot them immediately after because they weren't important.<br>When of them was named Richard she though... something along those lines anyway.

Planning the next move would be more complicated.

Chell hadn't forgotten about Penny's... 'lead'.  
>How farfetched it had sounded, where there is smoke, there is also fire.<br>Rumors on Aperture were either total lies or warped truths.  
>If Wheatley hadn't met the 'kidnapper' in the hallway, Chell had probably dismissed it as some idiotic gossip born out of sensation.<br>In this case however, she wanted to look into it more throughly.

Obviously Johnson knows the mysterious person, may even work for him or worse, the other way around.  
>No, that wouldn't make any sense, why would he kidnap his own students, especially knowing the trouble it got him from worried parents.<p>

Blackmailing might be an option, if Johnson owned this person money, he could help them kidnap the rich students and then let them receive the ransom. But no ransom note had been issued for any of them.

Then this could involve human trafficking.  
>Chell creased her brow, this all seemed too far fetched.<p>

Better go over her ideas then...

She could confront Johnson head on, but this was an unwise decision.  
>He would just deny it, then it would be his word against hers and we all know how that would turn out...<p>

Chell had a far better, but also far more dangerous, idea.  
>She would need Wheatley to help her and he wouldn't like it.<p>

Oh well, she could be very... convincing at times.

"You are out of your mind! You don't even know what your getting yourself into if you do this!"

Chell only smiled at Wheatley's frantic tone.  
>His concern was... cute. In a Wheatley way, of course.<p>

She waved her hands in her usual 'it's no big deal.' gesture.

"No big deal?" Wheatley choked out, voicing her thoughts perfectly.

"Helping somebody carry his books, is no big deal. Copying homework, is no big deal. But breaking into the office of your principal? That's a big deal chell, enormous even!"  
>She rolled her eyes at him, did he always have to be so damn dramatic?<br>It would be simple: get in, look for clues and get out.  
>Easy as that!<br>All Wheatley had to do was stand guard and possibly distract any person who bared suspicion.  
>Now Chell was giving him permission to ramble as much as he liked and he was still complaining.<br>This is why she hated dealing with people.  
>She lowered her head a moment, before bringing it up with the most determinant look she had.<br>He couldn't stand it when she did that.

Wheatley couldn't stand it when she gave him that look.

He had, very appropriately, dubbed it her 'I'm going to do something dangerous or stupid and need your help, but I'll do it whether you help me or not, so you better help me if you don't want me to get in trouble and have it on your conscience.' look.  
>He was still working on something shorter, not quiet their yet.<p>

Anyway, it was either being her partner in crime or...  
>Well, nothing else really, he would never be able to walk out on her.<p>

"... Okay then." he sighed, grinning to her nervously.  
>Chell smiled back, glad about her win.<p>

"Okay then, we'll be just like secret agents.. Like in Mission: impossible!"He stated, getting his good mood back at the sight of her smile.  
>"Never saw that movie though.. did it end well? I hope so..."<p>

He trailed on after this, while making his way to Johnson's office with Chell.  
>She just hoped it wouldn't go as the first part of that movie...<p>

That's it, please **Review.** I want to approve so badly!

Also **for those of you who haven't seen Mission: impossible**, at the start of the movie, their mission goes horribly wrong and almost everybody dies. Yeah, i know, suckish reference ^^'


	6. Chapter 5

There were several things Wheatley could imagine to do right now, better then what he really was taking part in at the moment.  
>Such as sleeping, eating, even studying.<br>Anything other then standing guard outside his headmasters office, trying to prove a (come tot think of it) pretty screwed up idea.  
>Damn his loyalty to Chell.<br>Damn his own cowardice.  
>Damn the fact that he was fearing that the 'screwed up idea' of Chell could be not THAT screwed up after all.<br>So he just paced back and forth a bit, hoping that this would all turn out right.

* * *

><p>Now this was an interesting turn of events.<br>So they had found out more than it intended them to, not really a bother.  
>So they were acting on it, not really a surprise.<br>It had read a lot about her, him and those others...  
>It was long prepared for whatever they may managed to cough up.<p>

* * *

><p>Meanwhile on a whole different part of school, Glados was having trouble coping.<br>Glados never had trouble with anything, so you might understand how distressing it was.  
>She kept her face in a perfect stoic expression of course, but inside she was screaming at the top of her lungs.<br>It will be alright, she tried to confirm to herself, she just had to get her thoughts in order...  
>So first, Principal Johnson was approximated by some strange looking people, but she was the only one to see it. Then students started to go missing, not that anyone noticed, at a slow rate.<br>After that CC went missing as well, finally getting the attention of at least some of the morons that went to her school.  
>And now this...<br>The truly sad part of it all was that Glados had no idea what it meant, she tried so hard but she didn't manage to put the pieces together.  
>It just didn't make sense.<p>

* * *

><p>Cave Johnson had some wicked interest.<br>That's the only conclusion Chell could come to, after all she had found lying around his office, which was a mess by the way.  
>Books, papers (some even official looking documents) and letters littered the ground, lying among garbage and food wrappers.<br>This could only be the work of a womanless man. How the principal managed to find anything inside here was a miracle on it's own, but people often say there's order amongst disorder.  
>Chell wasn't one of those people.<br>She started by carefully making her way to the office, dark wood and quit nice, standing in the middle back of the office.  
>No matter how hard she tried, she still couldn't avoid stepping on some stuff, making for weird cracking noises coming from the apparently not so empty food packages.<br>Upon reaching the desk itself, Chell took a moment to look outside the large, wall high window behind the desk chair. It looked out on the field with the bleachers that connected all the different school buildings.  
>It was noon-break and it was a warm, sunny day, which resulted in small packs of students spread amongst the green grass carpet eating their lunches.<br>She shouldn't be distracted however, so Chell concentrated on the bureau, as messy as the room itself.  
>She seated herself on the comfortable black leather chair and began picking trough the stacks of papers, trying to find anything useful.<br>Most of them were on school funds, student applications and financial stuff.  
>Chell shifted trough them quiet rapidly, her eyes rushing over in a split second needed to know the subject of the documents.<br>Just when she considered she should look somewhere else she found something interesting.  
>"Transfer technology rapport" it read above, and under that line after line of complicated information Chell would need some more time to understand. She decided to take the document with her later, now she should search on.<br>Her eye was pulled towards Cave's computer standing on the desk.  
>She moved the mouse around a bit, making a screen pop up which asked her to enter a password.<br>After a few seconds of though, she typed: testing.  
><em>Access denied<em>.  
>Maybe if she tried: combustible lemons.<br>_Access denied_ again.  
>Sighing irritated, she considered what to try for her final attempt, otherwise the pc would lockdown and Cave would notice for sure somebody was snooping around his office.<br>She chewed her lip for a while, before typing Caroline into the box.  
>Chell felt nervous for the first time since the plan started.<br>Access granted, the screen rewarded her.  
>She led out a breath she was holding, maybe the rumor that the principal and his secretary had something more going on wasn't shuch a rumor after all.<br>She was just glad she remembered it from all Penny's gibberish.  
>The screen saver appeared, displaying the moon for some strange reason Chell didn't comprehend.<br>She shifted to the many documents, titles so weird she didn't even want to know what it was about.  
>'Core development', 'repulsion gel producement', 'AI completement' and so on.<br>'Police rapport'. Chell laughed.  
>Seemed it would still be worthwhile.<br>She double-clicked on it, hoping she still had enough time on her hands to finish this.

* * *

><p>What if the fire alarm went of, yes, that could happen.<br>Or if somebody reported them missing during lunch.  
>With CC's disappearing fresh in their minds, it could happen... or what if...<br>Wheatley was just running disaster theories through his head, still pacing back and forth in the hallway.  
>There were a thousand things that could go wrong and knowing him, they would.<br>It was like the law of Murphy applied only to him.  
>"What can go wrong, will go wrong." He mumbled, surprised he remembered anything from his lessons at all.<br>It was if he attracted bad luck, on an unfunny level.  
>Though others often found it amusing...<br>Suddendly Wheatley heard footsteps coming from the end of the hall.  
>Frozen with fear, he forgot to knock on the headmasters door, the signal he and Chell had decided upon earlier, and just closed his eyes, covering his ears with his hands.<br>'This is it, I'm going to die. And for what? The disappearance of a guy I don't even like that much.  
>Chell is going to be SO mad at me, we'll get kicked out of school, or worse, they'll kill us because we know too much. I'm too young to die.'<br>"Moron, what are you doing?" a stoic voice spoke up.  
>At that moment, Wheatley was caught somewhere in between having a mini-heart attack and sighing out in relief.<br>So he did both, which gave a quiet unique sight for the newcomer.  
>Glados wasn't sure why the idiot was acting like he just saw a ghost, but she knew she would find out soon enough.<br>After he had regained his normal breathing, Wheatley finally had time to process what Glados had just called him.  
>A moron? Why did she always have to say that, he hated it.<br>"What are you doing here?" he managed to bring out, deciding to let the moron comment slip by for now.  
>"I think I asked you first..." she shot, crossing her arms.<br>"I... Well I..." Crap, what was he doing here. He hadn't thought of any excuse yet.  
>"I was looking for the toilet, isn't that somewhere around here?"<br>"... Right. I hope you DO know your not only stupid but a horrible liar as well. You've been going to this school for 3 years now, EVEN you're incomprehensible small mind just know where the facilities are by now. "  
>This comment only resulted in Wheatley bringing our a semi-strangled noise while stealing a glance towards the door. Where was Chell when you needed her.<br>"I guess the other one is inside there." Glados observed, raising a skeptic eyebrow.  
>"What. How did you? ... I mean, I have no idea what you're talking about...'<br>At that exact moment Chell came barging out of the office, looking rather excited, breaking Wheatley's already mediocre arguments completely.  
>As she spotted Glados, Chell shot her a none too friendly look. They had never seen quiet eye to eye.<br>"Right, I should ask what you think you were doing in Cave's office, but frankly I don't even want to know, I have more important things on my mind." Glados merely waved Chells hostile look aside.  
>Chell just grabbed Wheatley's wrist and dragged him off, speeding her pace.<br>Partly she wanted to share her newly gained knowledge, but she knew she also wanted to get away from Glados as soon as possible.  
>Something about that girl just rubbed her the wrong way.<br>It may be the friendly relationship she had with Mister Cave, it could be those unnaturally pale eyes, or it was just simply the fact that Glados walked and talked like she was superior to everyone else. Sure, she might be smart, hyper intelligent even, but she didn't need to act like she owned the damn place.  
>Chell had no time to worry about that right now however, it was of to the dorms.<p>

Glados just stared as the duo retreaded. She still wanted to know what the two of them were hanging around here for, or more importantly, why Chell had been inside the headmasters office.  
>On the other hand, Chell wasn't stupid either, unlike her counterpart, and she was a stubborn person.<br>Maybe she knew something weird was going on as well.  
>Whatever, Glados had it almost completely figured out already, so Chell would just be too late.<br>Talking about that counterpart, Glados still didn't get why Chell always dragged him behind her like that. She was way to smart for him.  
>If it weren't for his parents having the funds, he would probably be filling racks in some store, if he even could remember where to put everything.<br>The only job he couldn't screw up was looking after comatose vegetable-like people.  
>Glados entered her headmasters office without seconde thought.<br>Maybe Chell's idea of scouting it wasn't so bad.  
>The office was a mess and Glados knew this wasn't because someone had just looked trough it.<br>She wondered if anyone could even work in this place, on the other hand, Cave Johnson had surprised her before.  
>Reaching the bureau, Glados noticed Chell had already logged it out, of course.<br>Not feeling the desire to start the tiring work of trying to get into the pc, Glados decided to just look trough the cabinets instead.  
>The first few she opened didn't contain anything useful.<br>More old food rappers, documents about all possible thing having to do with schools.  
>However, soon she found something that didn't seem to belong there at all.<br>The document was stashed away in the back of the lowest shelf, but in contrast to the other stuff, it seemed like it was put there on purpose.  
>The document was heavy, bound in black covers and had red strings binding it.<br>Glados took it, fiddling with the strings for a bit before finally getting the strings lose.  
>She opened the map, but nothing could have prepared her for what she was going to encounter inside it.<br>Her eyes grew large in shock at the same moment that somebody appeared in the doorway, casting an eerie shadow on her back.  
>"Ah, Glados, what luck, I was just looking for you." The person said, closing the door behind them.<p> 


	7. Chapter 6

Lunchtime was almost over, Chell and Wheatley had just made the their way back from Headmaster Johnsons office, which was quiet a way from the dorms and classroom.  
>On their way, neither had spoken a word, either too shocked or just dumb folded about what to say.<br>Cave would be back in his office any minute now, and secretly Chell hoped he would catch Glados standing in his hallway, so she'd get in trouble.  
>On the other hand, it was obvious Glados was Cave's favorite student so probably not.<br>They entered the girl dorm a little while later.  
>To her annoyance Chell noticed a blush had spread on wheatleys face. Boys weren't normally allowed in here, although there were numerous boys who tried to sneak a peek of the girls out of their uniforms and in their PJ's at night.<br>Wheatley obviously wasn't one of those boys.  
>Hell, he wasn't even the type to be interested in girls at all, at least that's what Chell concluded.<br>She resolutely closed her door behind shut and closed the lock on it, then she took pen and paper to write down what she knew already.  
>Not only so Wheatley could read it, but also to put everything she had discovered so far straight.<br>Wheatley patiently seated himself on Chell's bed, knowing by experience this could take a while and occupied himself with looking at her bookshelf.  
>It contained a majority of mystery novels, some school books and a puzzle book here and there.<br>He took one of the last category and busied himself with not understanding what the hell he was looking at for the next 15 minutes.

*************************************************************************** 

Glados took in a sharp breath as she was surprised by the strangers arrival. The document she was holding onto had dropped on the ground, papers scattering along the already littered floor, not standing out one bit.  
>The newcomer now walked further in, with a confident smile, and sat himself on the edge of the bureau.<br>Glados didn't turn completely, she didn't need to, as he was just in the edge of her vision and she could see him out of the corner of her eye.  
>Not that she wanted to, it was a living fear to her, but there was nowhere to run anymore.<br>"Just on time, saves me the struggle of looking." He stated, tracing a finger on the side of the desk. The guy acted like he owned the fucking place.  
>Which was technically the case, Chell supported herself, because he was no-one else but the one and only Cave Johnson. Her father.<br>The documents she had discovered had done nothing but prove her twisted theory, and although she knew for years that this was coming, it didn't do anything to relief her angst.  
>She didn't want this, never had, she only wished that would get through to the man now sitting in front of her.<br>"Why? Why do you do this?" she managed to bring out through clenched teeth, determined to not show him her true emotions.  
>He let out a faint laugh, ever so amused. "You already know that don't you, It will be my greatest work yet…. OUR greatest work. It's as much your doing as it is mine and you know that."<br>" I wish I never had-…."  
>"But you have, too late to turn that back now."<br>Cave got up and started making his way out of the office, not caring in the least with whatever he was stepping on.  
>"Come on," He waved Glados to follow him. "There are only a small amount of tests left, so it's time to prepare. Also, did I mention the engineers assume the combustible lemons are indeed possible." He added the last part as a sort of afterthought, accompanied by a silly grin, he wasn't just about work after all.<br>If she wasn't in such an unstable predicament, Glados would have face-palmed at that. 

Penny and Atlas, meanwhile, were still searching for Chell and Wheatley, Penny had gotten word of some new interesting rumors and was itching to share them with her (self-proclaimed) best friends.  
>Come to think of it, she had seen them run of together right after forth our and they were still one.<br>The next lesson will be in 5 minutes and they're supposed to have it with the four of them.  
>Maybe she was just being paranoid, with the recent disappearances and all, but if they weren't there by 6th hour Penny would go tell the teachers.<br>On the other hand, if they were doing that little detective thing Chell seemed so fond of, then maybe telling the teachers wasn't such a great idea.  
>"What do you think?" she asked Atlas, who was tracing behind her.<br>He gave her a look that basically read: 'I can't read minds.'  
>"Yeah, yeah, I know." She mumbled, like he just gave the most useful answer in the world and he raised his eyebrows.<br>The bell rang and they both entered English.  
>Penny couldn't concentrate on the lesson at all however, she was worried beyond imagination already.<br>It didn't help one bit the teacher was telling a story about historical serial killers.  
>When the lesson was over, Penny walked down the hallway, stopping at a T-turn and then abruptly turning left.<br>"Biology is that way." Atlas pointed out, stopping at the same spot Penny stood mere seconds ago.  
>"I know, I'm skipping class to look for them." She stated, like it was the most normal thing in the world.<br>"We'll check the dorms first; but I'm willing to search the entire school of necessary."  
>And that's why they made their way to Chell's room.<p>

***************************************************************************

" I don't understand this…" Wheatley complained for almost the 20th time the past half-hour.  
>He was holding one of Chell's easier puzzle books, flipping through the pages and reading the unsolved puzzles.<br>Unsolved, because Chell had done that on an extra paper, in case she wanted to do them again later, which she didn't, they were too obvious.  
>Chell pointed at some things, without properly looking away from her work, making him sigh.<br>"Ooh, now I see.. I could have figured that out." He half-heartedly answered.  
>Still he put the book away and went about looking over Chell's shoulder to see what was taking so long.<br>"Wait? Isn't that our homework for tomorrow… why are you doing that now, we're missing 5th our!"  
>Not that he actually disliked that last part, he hated class, but still, it wasn't like Chell.<br>The latter took a second to tap her pen on a notepad lying on the side.  
>It read: ' We won't have time for it tonight and it's a lot.'<br>"Wait, what do you mean WE don't have time.?" Wheatley asked concerned.  
>Again Chell tapped on her notebook.<br>'Ask later.'  
>Damn, was he that predictable?<br>Chell seemed to have finished one of her paper and handed it to him, before bowing back over her desk.  
>Looking at the paper, Wheatley couldn't help but think it was severely less complicated then the number filled pages in front of his friends and he felt oddly thankful for that.<br>He just didn't feel like dealing with any of that right know.

Another 20 minutes later Chell finished up her writing, looking over the papers and feeling kind of proud of herself, she had figured it out.  
>Not all of it, but enough to understand that something was going on, that it was bad, and that it was about to get a lot worse.<br>She also understood the crazy Cave Johnson may be a little less crazy then everyone thought, or maybe a little bit more crazy…  
>Whatever he was planning, The chances were large a lot of the already missing students weren't going to return. Unless Chell could help it of course.<p>

She turned and sat backwards on her chair, giving Wheatley a meaningful look, which he returned.  
>So he understood, good, saved her some extra time.<br>Know to just persuade him into agreeing with her plan for tonight.  
>If she said she would go with or without him he would just tag along anyway.<p>

A sudden knock on the door interrupted her train of thoughts and without waiting on an answer Penny barged in, followed closely by the boy Chell remembered was Atlas.  
>"OMG, you guys? Where have you been? You skipped 5th hour and now we are skipping 6th because of you too!"<br>She sounded more mad than she actually was but that was just to hide her underlying relief.  
>Chell acknowledged her with a wave then smiled apologetic while motioning towards the unfinished homework.<br>"Why are you making your homework?" Atlas piped up, scarring everybody in the room because he almost never talks.  
>Chell handed him the same notebook she used with Wheatley.<br>"I don't get it…" Penny wondered out loud.  
>Chell kind of expected that, luckily she was prepared.<br>She had already wanted to ask Penny and Atlas with help for her grand master plan, but now that they came themselves it saved her some time.  
>She quickly held out a note; 'I'll explain everything this evening after diner in my room.'<br>So everybody just left to continue their classes, not saying another worth to each other.  
>either confused, like Penny and Atlas, half confused like Wheatley or just thrilled about that evening.<p>

Nothing else happened that day until in the late evening.  
>Chell had finished the homework half an hour ago already and was now just turning rounds on her chair, the wheels in her head turning as well.<br>On her bed, Wheatley was laying with his eyes closed and Chell feared that if the others took too long to arrive, he would doze off.  
>She kicked his leg with her foot and made a 'where are they?' hand gesture.<br>Wheatley merely sat upright, hitting his head on the slopping side of the roof, and shrugged.  
>Maybe telling them they were going to crawl through vents (among other things) wasn't such a good idea.<br>But they weren't the kind of people to get scared either.  
>Then where the hell were they? <p>


	8. Chapter 7

**Important A/N. READ IT!: Hi everyone. Just wanted to let you know this chapter is pretty short, but that's only because I wanted to post SOMETHING to let you know I'm still alive, as is this story. As mentioned in chapter one, I will never abandon any story, I don't even begin writing when I'm not sure I'm going to finish.**  
><strong>I do have to apologize for neglecting my writing in favor of other things. Don't worry though, I'm totally back on it, so the next chapter will be longer and updated faster. <strong>**I hope i haven't lost too many of you. Thanks for reading and remember to review.** **It might motivate me! *wink wink***

**Disclaimer: I do not own Portal. please keep in mind that the humanoid versions of the bots are just my interpretation of things and by no means any good.**

As the minutes slipped past, Chell and Wheatley began to be more and more worried about their 2 friends, whom never appeared at the room.  
>Wheatley was pacing up and down the confined space of the dorm chamber while flicking a small flashlight on and off.<br>Instead of scolding him, like she would normally do, Chell was occupied with a very strange something.  
>There was a growing feeling at the pit of her stomach, something she very rarely ever felt and so far only associated with the blonde in her room.<br>She had already realized it was worry and now only wondered when she began to feel so much for the 2 new students.  
>as the clock finally read 9 pm, she was tired of waiting.<br>'The show must go on' as they would say.  
>Picking up the small items she and Wheatley had spread out on the desk, Chell started to make her way out, not even waiting for Wheatley to follow, which he obviously did anyway.<p>

"Are you sure you don't want to wait a bit longer…?" His voice sounded kind of nervous, he had probably hoped she would call the whole thing of now that Penny and Atlas were nowhere to be found.

'Not gonna happen.' She thought firmly.

"Oh, you're thinking the same has happened to them as the other missing students…" Wheatley concluded from her silence.

Chell had to swallow a lump at that, it was indeed what she was thinking, she just didn't want to face that right now.  
>There were plenty of other reasonable explanations.<br>But the luck hadn't exactly been in their favor the past couple of days…

After walking in silence for 10 more minutes, they arrived close to the basement of the school.  
>Chell walked up to a medium-sized vent, took out her screwdriver and began unscrewing the different bolts as if it was the most normal thing in the world.<br>She had read it in one of her many detective books.  
>The basement was by far the only place where something as large as what was probably going on could be hidden in this school.<br>Nobody even went down here anymore, it was littered with dusty, old furniture that wasn't used anymore and boxes full of old schoolbooks.  
>However, as stated on one of the plans Chell had gotten from headmaster Johnson's office, this basement wasn't the lowest part of the school. Not by far.<br>If the plans were correct, and there was no reason why they wouldn't be, then there was a whole 3 floor thing going on down there.  
>Almost as huge as the school itself. The plans didn't say exactly what it was. But Chell wanted to find out.<p>

"So if I get this whole crazy thing correctly, you want us to creep trough that vent over there, in the hope it can lead us to an underground.. whatever it is, magically find and save all the missing students and get back before breakfast…" Wheatley asked, obvious sarcasm in his tone.  
>"Yeah sure why not." He shrugged upon Chell's angry look.<br>She then proceeded to remove the bolts, already gotten 2 of them off.  
>Stifling a sneeze, Wheatley rummaged through the dusty book some more, until he heard the clang of the metal cover being removed.<br>He turned around to see Chell already waist-up into the thing.

'Why can't she ever wait a minute…' he thought while crawling in behind her.  
>Not that he very much minded half a minute later when he saw Chell had not changed from her school uniform yet and this whole predicament made it very easy to see under Chell's skirt.<br>In layman's terms, Wheatley could see her panties.  
>Very poorly he tried to suppress his sniggering, until Chell threw him a look that, in all earnestly, promised death if he said a word, so he was left blushing the whole way down. <p>

* * *

><p>Glados finally made it down the last few steps of the chair, warily looking around before going on.<br>She didn't really think anyone would follow her down here anyway, but there was a chance.  
>After making sure she was alone, Glados went around a few corners and down another long hallway.<br>Everybody else though this part of the school was a stock-area.  
>She knew better.<p>

Glados fished a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket that depicted exactly where she needed to be to pull this off.  
>When she though the found it, she frowned.<br>It was a normal piece of wall, just like all the other normal pieces of wall around it.  
>But if she was right, and heck, she was always right, this was the place.<br>She put her hand flat against the wall… but nothing happened.  
>'Well that's a disappointment.' She though sarcastically, moving her hand around a bit in order to find the right place. Right about the time she was ready to stop it, a swiveling noise came and the wall slid open.<br>'..Or maybe not.' She added.

The interior was a whole other thing compared with the school.  
>A lush red carpeted floor, or laminated in some rooms, had made way for sanitary white tiles that seemed to have been scrubbed a dozen times over.<br>These tiles went all the way up to the wall and ceiling as well, giving Glados a hospital vibe.  
>'No… not a hospital… something worse.' She concluded.<p>

She saw no other choose then to enter the weird rooms.  
>As soon as she entered the door behind her closed and bright florescent lights sprung on, blinding her momentarily.<br>Without even as much as a moment hesitation, Glados made her way down the corridor.  
>Whatever it was her father had to show her, it better be important.<br>She thought back to her previous encounter with him in the office. 

* * *

><p><em> "Why? Why do you do this?" she managed to bring out through clenched teeth, determined to not show him her true emotions.<br>He let out a faint laugh, ever so amused. "You already know that don't you, It will be my greatest work yet…. OUR greatest work. It's as much your doing as it is mine and you know that."_

" _I wish I never had-…."_

"_But you have, too late to turn that back now."_

_Cave got up and started making his way out of the office, not caring in the least with whatever he was stepping on.  
>"Come on," He waved Glados to follow him. "There are only a small amount of tests left, so it's time to prepare. Also, did I mention the engineers assume the combustible lemons are indeed possible." He added the last part as a sort of afterthought, accompanied by a silly grin, he wasn't just about work after all.<br>If she wasn't in such an unstable predicament, Glados would have face-palmed at that._

_Cave took Glados all the way back to her own dorm room, not caring for the many weird looks they got from other students on the way.  
>The rumors were there anyway.<br>Soon they wouldn't even have to worry about that anymore. Then he could leave this pesky school for ones and for all. It was never much of a school anyway, inhabited by idiots and morons.  
>And a genius here and there, to keep up appearances.<em>

Inside the room, Cave sat down at Glados' desk, took pen and paper and started to draw something.  
>Glados placed herself on her bed, which somehow felt much less comfortable this way.<p>

"_This is a small map on how to come down_ to the…. Stock rooms."  
><em>He said it like the didn't both knew what was actually going on down there.<br>The lock is sealed, it will only open for someone with my DNA, or that of my family."  
>He handed her the map in the most casual way she ever saw somebody hand over a secret route to a secret lab….<em>

_She took it without a word, not even looking at it, neither at him when he got up and left the room.  
>In the doorway, he halted, hand enclosing the door handle.<br>"You'll come down tonight, I promise you will understand once you've seen it…. It's magnificent."  
>He turned back around, walked over to Glados and bowed down.<br>She was still facing the floor, not wanting to face Cave._

* * *

><p>"It was your fate all along, no use running away from it and you know it…. Dear."<br>With those last words, he gave her a kiss on the cheek and left the room.  
>It was supposed to be a gesture of love and care, one a normal parent may give their child to comfort it.<br>To Glados, it was nothing more than the kiss of death.

By the time she had snapped out of her daze, Glados had already reached the inner parts of the lab.  
>She could see through the half blurred windows, down into the test rooms.<br>How many of her classmates already died in there. How many of the others, the ones that weren't fated to testing but to something worse, were still sentient.

When she reached the end of all turns and hallways, Glados knew this was going to be it.  
>The door before her was large, ominous and a death penalty.<br>One she was going to face head on.  
>In her head, she saw a 8 year old girl, bright gray eyes and long, almost white looking hair.<br>She held up some papers to her father, back when he was still daddy.  
>She only wanted to hear that he was proud of her…<br>But now, Glados only wanted to go back there and burn those damned plans.


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: hi everyone. Again a short update, cause i've been having problems with my health. I hope they find out what it is soon, I wouldn't want to be like this forever. Please update to motivate me.. then I'll write more. I'm working on 4 other stories right now, they get way more reviews so... just saying ;) **

* * *

><p>Penny felt like shit…. And that would be an understatement.<br>her head hurt like she had just been hit with a crowbar.  
>Weirdly enough her body felt just fine. Or she couldn't feel it at all.<br>Everything was dark.  
>Either she had just gone blind or she needed to open her eyes.<br>Somehow she found that last one easier said than done. 

After a few minutes her eyes finally opened.  
>Too bright light filtered through and it took her several more seconds to be able to distinguish her surroundings.<br>She found herself to be in an hygienic, white room. The walls were bare and all warmth seemed to be drained by them.  
>'Why aren't I cold…' Penny was about to ponder when something moved before her.<br>It looked like a metal ball with sticks attached to it that moved around like a human being and for a moment Penny though she had lost her mind.  
>Which wouldn't be too far from the truth.<br>The thing was now swaying around like a drunk man.  
>Then it turned to her, with one big blue eye, way too familiar to be comfortable.<br>And if Penny had a voice, she would scream her absent lungs out.  
>Instead only a mechanical squeaky noise came out.<br>The weird thing raised it arms in a humanoid gesture to calm her down. It squeaked right back at her.  
>'Atlas…' she though. The awkward, half-soothing, half-panicking movements she would recognize anywhere.<br>Somehow she managed to be able to control her legs, which were just as thin and unstable as her counterpart's.  
>She shuffled over quiet awkwardly, but at the same time surprised she had learned to control this new body so quickly.<br>It consisted of a weird, sideways-oval shape that had long, thin metal legs and arms.  
>Her hand seemed to only be 3 small finger like stubs.<br>How the hell was this happening. What the hell had happened.  
>The last things she seemed to remember was heading back to her dorm room, to get ready to undertake their little secret operation.<br>They had meant to meet up with Chell and Wheatley some hours later, but Penny had no clue how much time had passed already.  
>Were they still waiting, or maybe they were already on their way to find them, rescue them… whatever it was they needed to be rescued from anyway.<br>at the moment it just seemed like some weird nightmare about being put inside a robot.  
>And she hoped she would wake up soon. <p>

* * *

><p>Wheatley and Chell had safely made their way through the air duct system. Now she was straightening her skirt, looking quiet flushed as Wheatley turned around to hide his blush.<br>Why did all of this have to be so embarrassing damn...  
>"Okay, somehow we made it her without activating any alarm bells.. what now?" He asked . He didn't really care if he sounded skeptical, cause he was.<br>How in the hell was this ever going to work.  
>Bu looks of it they were in some underground hospitalscience facility (he wasn't sure which one he'd prefer yet) that was straight from Chell's detective novels.  
>She straightened, casually looking down the hallway. They had come out of the vent somewhere in the middle, so it stretched on very far to the right and left.<br>She had a sudden flashback to something she read in a puzzle book once .  
>When you are stuck in a labyrinth, you should just keep going right.<br>So she nudged Wheatley, who looked like a lost puppy, the way he was staring around, and pointed toward the right way.  
>Then she abruptly took that path, leaving Wheatley to pace behind her nervously.<br>This place seemed more and more like something he would see in his nightmares.  
>The walls, floor and ceiling were all a bright white that stung his eyes. The air smelled of a combination of melted metal and pure oxygen. (He knew, he had once inhaled it during chemical class and fainted)<br>Now he could even hear faint sounds from the other sides of the walls.  
>Grinding, the buzzing of computers, and was that a laser?<br>This was bad idea, bad idea, really really bad idea! 

* * *

><p>Glados stared at the screen, shocked beyond imagination.<br>In theory her thesis seemed simple: converting a human mind to a robot, but without changing his or her personality or destroying the body. Imagine the cheer possibilities, it was virtual immortality.  
>The human mind could only process so much information until it 'crashed'. Computers don't have that problem.<br>But looking over these test sheets, experiments and technology.  
>She hadn't though the father would have been crazy enough to actually put it to the test.<br>And succeed.  
>She was torn up between feeling happy that she'd been right and her theories were not farfetched after all.<br>But this also meant her father had used living human beings to discover this. And that could only mean one thing.  
>The missing students were found. And most of them wouldn't be returning.<br>If these files were right, the earlier testing had gone wrong. The memories, personality or even intelligent of the person were lost.  
>Sometimes the whole humanity just wasn't there.<br>And the bodies weren't all alive and intact either.  
>It was a faith worse than death, when she thought about it.<br>What had her father been meaning to do with all this, or rather, what was he going to do very soon.  
>That's when she opened another file and saw the horrid truth. <p>

* * *

><p><strong>Dum dum dum! REVIEW NOW! PLEASE ^^<strong>


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